Chattanooga's Mayor says there's not enough money to give all city employees a three-percent pay raise, and fund increases for Police Officer Career Development.
Mayor Ron Littlefield made his case before city council members this morning to only boost the salary of civilian employees, and also fund the police program.
Littlefield says over the past five years, police and firefighters have received more pay bumps than non-sworn workers.
He says, "If you remember that very popular tax increase that we had to swallow, when we were stepping up and doing what other communities weren't doing, keeping all our employees, that entire tax increase went to the Police Department."
Littlefield used a power point to also show pension and healthcare contributions for police and fire are triple the cost of the civilian fund with 600 fewer workers.